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Recycling Week 2017 – How to do your bit

Now in its 14th year Recycling Week is a celebration of recycling everything from teabags to fridge-freezers.

Recycling and looking after the environment is important to everyone here at Bensons and that is why all our product packaging is 100% recyclable from our glass bottles to our cardboard boxes. We also recycle everything that we can at our HQ using our multiple recycling bins and upcycling around the farm where we can.

Here are 5 Easy ways you can more environmentally friendly at home

Don’t waste paper

Next time you are writing notes or need to scribble down a phone number or shopping list, instead of throwing it away try and reuse the piece of paper repeatedly until you have no space left… then recycle!

If you run a business – consider paperless options here too. You will save money overall!

Shower over bathing

If you have the option, choose to shower over bathing. A shower will use approximately half the amount of water that a bath would.

Use refillable water bottles and coffee cups

Only 10% of plastic water bottles and less than 1% of coffee cups get recycled. The remaining end up in landfill.

Use energy saving lightbulbs

Energy-efficient lightbulbs on average use between 25% and 80% less energy than traditional lightbulbs – saving money and the environment.

Recycle your electricals

170 million new electrical items are purchased in the UK each year and we currently only recycle less than a third of these when they come to the end of their life cycle.

Recycling electrical goods is usually a straightforward process and you can easily locate and find out more about your local recycling centre on the Recycle Now website

In the wider world

This week a harrowing new BBC documentary has exposed the continued illegal dumping of e-waste in developing countries. Insider: Reggie Yates – A Week in a Toxic Waste Dump aired on BBC One Tuesday, 26th September, and it makes for seriously unsettling viewing.

Reggie, heads to the country’s capital – Accra –Nicknamed Agbogbloshie, this 20-acre site was established in the 1990s and has grown from a former wetland area with rivers, farms, and a lagoon, to one of the most toxic sites on the planet.

Abogbloshire is now dubbed as an electronic graveyard plagued with everything from hairy dryers, mobile phones, TVs, computer monitors, freezers to air conditioning units.

Manuel workers at the very bottom of the chain often regarded as “burner boys” burn the waste electronics deemed to be of little or no monetary value which produces toxic fumes and can ultimately result in premature death due to nervous system complications, kidney problems and cancer. Most of the young men working on the waste sites do not wear protective clothing and have little or no understanding about the dangers to their health.

The hour-long documentary then goes on to reveal that over 80,000 people live in a slum and makeshift homes next to the waste land which will have a direct impact on their health.

We would certainly recommend watching the show if you get the chance and it is now available on BBC IPlayer.